My name is Tobias Zimmer, I am 42 and live in Cologne, Germany, with my wife Johanna. I have always been a restless soul that really loves to discover new countries and cultures. Before I started diving I spent a lot of time exploring the coastlines of the Atlantic from France to Morocco to go surfing.
Learning to dive was a dream of mine since I was very young. Somehow it took me until 2004, when I had my first scuba diving class in Phuket, Thailand with Seabees. I fell in love.
As my studies about Photo-Engineering have been very theoretical I choose for my final exam a subject which I was really interested in. ‘Problems of the underwater photography in theory and practice’. Before my final year at university, I took one practical year in which I went back to Thailand to get some experience in underwater photography and, of course, better diving skills. I became a dive instructor that year.
After finishing my academic studies in Feb 2008, I started to combine photography and the production of virtual tours to get around the world and in the water as much as possible. Some years later I became more connected to the German dive industry and started to produce articles for the various dive publications, Tauchen, UNTERWASSER, and Silent World together with my colleague Peter Kaubisch.
That’s how diving and photography brought me around the whole world and I am fully aware that this is a huge privilege that I appreciate a lot. I really can say that I love the underwater world and all its creatures. If I had to choose to dive only at one place on this planet it would be the protected marine reserve around the Misool Resort. It is just the most diverse, vibrant and living place I have been to and it will for sure never become boring. I love both wide-angle and macro, normally the dive site decides what to go for.
I am shooting with a Nikon d850 in a Seacam housing and flashes either with the 13mm Nikonos or the 105mm Macro.
Baby blacktip reef shark, Misool Resort Lagoon, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Dentist service, Misool Resort house reef, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Mantis shrimp with family, Atmosphere Resort, Philippines
Little friend, Alor Island, Indonesia
Maroon anemonefish, Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Manta at Magic Mountain, Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Desirable flabellina, Lembeh, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Baby filefish, Lembeh, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Misool at its best
Hypselodoris Apolegma Lembeh, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Misool
Tiger shrimps, Negros, Philippines
Coral power, Fiji
Hiding from the danger, Fakarava north passage, French Polynesia
Harlequin ghostpipefish, Negros, Philippines
Humpback snapper mating season, Fakarava south passage, French Polynesia
Coral, Fiji
Find more from Tobias on his Instagram @tobias_zimmer_fotographie
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